By: Collin Rutkowski / @CRutkowski37 / sports@kvsc.org / Photo by SCSU Athletics

The Huskies won all five games over the weekend to open up the 2020 season.

Game One: St. Cloud State 8, Northwestern College 0 (6 Innings)

Kylie Thomsen would toe the rubber to open the season and would get some help from her offense in frame number one. The Huskies would send across five runs with some help from a Jasmin Estrada RBI double. Haley McFarlane would come to bat next and would send one over the center field fence for a 2-run blast. The offense wouldn’t finish their as Cassie Francesconi and Sydney Trees would each tally RBI singles. The score would read 5-0 at the end of the first. Maya Keating would add a 2-RBI single in the 5^th to make it 7-0 at the end of five innings. The Raiders had no answer for Thomsen as she would throw four no-hit innings only allowing a walk in the first inning retiring eleven straight batters to finish her day. Lauren Kirchberg would come in to pitch for Thomsen in the 5^th and would only give up one hit in two innings of relief. The Huskies would come to bat in the bottom half of the 6^th and a Sydney Trees triple would score Megan Conrads to give the Huskies an 8-0 victory on Friday.

Game Two: St. Cloud State 4, U of M Crookston 0

It would be Sydney Lapoint starting for St. Cloud in first game of two on Saturday vs. the Golden Eagles. The Huskies would strike first again in the first inning and it would be a throwing error by Cassie Querry trying to throw out Keating at 3^rd base that would allow her to come across the plate. The offense would go quiet for St. Cloud until the 4^th where Francesconi would drive in Ashley Schloer to double their lead. Later in the Inning, Alexandra Pinkowski would double, scoring Conrads and Francesconi would score on a passed ball making it 4-0, SCSU. Lapoint would go three strong innings and Kirchberg would go the final four to give the Huskies the victory in Game two.

Game Three: St. Cloud State 3, William Jewell College 2 (10 Innings)

It would be Kylie Thomsen on the mound again for the cardinal and black as they would look to keep their winning ways going against the Cardinals of William Jewell College. St. Cloud would fail to score in the first inning again and it would be WJC scoring first in the 4^th inning on a Sarah Lewis homerun. The Huskies would fill the bases in the bottom half of the inning and Sydney Trees would walk in a run to tie the game at one. Francesconi would hit a sac fly to double their lead. Kylie Thomsen would go four innings allowing only the one run and it would be Kirchberg yet again to come in relief. SCSU would take their one run lead into the 7^th, but WJC would tie the game to send it into extras. It wouldn’t be until the 10^th inning where Estrada would come to the plate with the bases juiced. A broken bat fielder’s choice would score the game winning run and keep the Huskies undefeated with Kirchberg picking up the win in six innings of relief.

Game Four: St. Cloud 8, William Jewell College 0 (5 Innings)

The bats would come out hot and early on Sunday for St. Cloud as they only needed the first three innings to score eight runs. Estrada would homer in the first to make it 2-0. They would add two more in the 2^nd, and Haley McFarlane would hit her second homerun of the weekend doubling her total from a season ago. Brooke Bowlin, who did not record a hit in the first three games would go 2-2 and 2-RBI’s helping the Huskies pick up the victory in five innings. Sydney would go four innings in the victory. Freshman Pitcher Trinity Junker would come in for her first collegiate appearance finishing off the Cardinals allowing one hit and one walk to close out the game.

Game Five: St. Cloud State 11, Viterbo University 1 (5 Innings)

It would be more of the same in the final game of the Kelly Laas Memorial Tournament for the Huskies as they would open up with four runs in the first inning. Keating and Trees would hit back-to-back homeruns with Keating’s being of the inside the park variety to jump out 2-0. Two more runs would come across to score in the inning off of a V-Hawks error. Conrads would hit her first homerun of the season to push the lead to 6-0 after two innings of play. Viterbo would score their only run of the game in the top of the 3^rd off of a Sonya McCormick double to cut the lead down to five. Bowlin would keep the hot day on Sunday going with an RBI triple and another RBI in the 4^th. Thomsen and Emma Murphy would shut down the Viterbo offense helping the Huskies pick up the 11-1 victory to wrap up the weekend.

The Huskies start the season 5-0 and will next play in Topeka Kansas in the Washburn Invite against the University of Nebraska at Kearny Lopes on Friday, February 28^th at 1 p.m.